Transcripts From Location: UK

Q: One of the happiest people I know is my eight-year-old grandson, who is autistic. He is so creative in what he does, but he often plays entirely on his own. I’m wondering if autism is a defense against the world? It occurred when he was about two years old. I wonder if he’s operating at a higher spiritual level than most of us, or is it a lower level?

John: Higher, but not higher in a way that works or is conducive to this world...

Q: As I study counselling and read various theories on child development, I almost see that nature hardwires the bodymind for survival and it seems that what we really are is so opposite, that from the very beginning, nature is encouraging us to distort, and I wonder why.

John: It encourages distortion when you leave your heart. It encourages what you know in your heart when you stay in your heart.

Q: So all these theories and this particular way of seeing things, does that just come from people not seeing the whole picture?..

Q: Will you speak about the difference of knowing and living the truth. How can I know what the truth is?

John: You have always known it. But it is so simple that it has been easy to overlook. The very simplest of what you know is that within yourself, it is always true to soften. And that it is never true to harden. Softening within, instead of hardening within has always been your deepest truth. And the easiest to overlook. Opening and softening within, instead of closing and hardening within: that you have always known…

Q: Hello, I’ve been dealing with trying to change habits, habits that no longer work for me, you know, being lazy, indolent, stuff like that, and I’m just wondering if you have some advice or instruction on how to drop habits. Thank you.

John: Changing a habit is, in principle, very simple. As awareness, be and do only what you know the truth of in your heart. What immediately complicates that is efforting to do that for the sake of anything that you experience in your self…

Q: Hi John. My question is, does emotion exist in being or is it a construct of self?

John: It doesn’t exist in being. It’s a dense form that offers you more form. Positive emotion very easily has heart in it. Negative emotion has only the experience of your unintegrated self. It has no heart in it. When you experience the separating power of negative emotion, that can turn you against all of your emotion, but as soon as you return to your heart, there’s going to be an expression of that in your self, and the expression of that is going to come through positive emotion…

Q: Your talk about beauty touched something deep within. My whole childhood I felt ugly. Now I’m beginning to experience more beauty inside and outside. I’ve never felt a victim. I developed certain patterns that helped along the way. Trust is quite a big issue and I’m gradually gaining more trust now. Being in a good relationship has helped a lot. I’d like advice on how not to listen to patterns when they come up.